Dead Runners society race report
East Anglian Track League, King's Lynn 3000m
race - sunday 12th August 2001.
I finished my summer of running on
the track in the rain at King's Lynn in Norfolk.
Tony here in autumnal
england, cool, wet and windy today, summer has gone :-((
Today we ran for
Cambridge and Coleridge AC in the last East Anglian League track meeting of the
year. This was the 2nd track meeting of the weekend for the beautiful Shelley as
yesterday she ran 3000m and 1500m for our club in the Southern Women's
League.
So off we went north from Cambridge up the A10 to the town of
King's Lynn in Norfolk. We arrived in plenty of time as the rain poured down.
Fortunately this track has an indoor 60m straight next to it so there was plenty
of room to shelter.
I had a long wait (4 hours) before my event, Shelley
was a busy lady again, she was down to run 800m but they wanted her to run 1500m
as well. With an indoor straight there was room for her to warm up in the dry,
as usual she looked pretty good warming up.
Shelley's 800m was the first
race, she was hoping for a good time today but with these conditions that was
never going to be a possibility. She had a good race finishing 4th, she was in
3rd place entering the home straight but was repassed by a runner from Boston
(the original Boston in Lincolnshire, not the place where a well known DRS
member once ran a marathon after a negative split qualifying time). Time was
slower than Shelley wanted, I'm not going to post her time.
Lots of
runners were doubling and trebling up at this meeting to get extra points for
their clubs, Shelley was one of these runners and she lined up with 3 other of
these multiple athletes for the 1500m, Shelley checked out her opponents on the
start line and thought she could win. Off they went and Shelley went into the
lead and just ran away from the field to win easily. The time was rather slow,
she ran a fairly fast last lap. I wish we had taken the camera with us as
Shelley had a big smile on her face as she crossed the line in FIRST PLACE :-)
She rather enjoyed that, she even did a lap of honour :-)
I couldn't
enjoy watching this as I had to warm up for my 3000m race. I jogged an easy mile
in my road shoes, after watching Shelley win I felt pretty good warming up. 10
minutes later back to the indoor track, off with my road shoes and on with my
spikes. I jogged out to the start and did some strides and a bit more stretching
then it was time to line up.
10 of us lined up, 4 of us from Cambridge
and Coleridge including fellow chemist Marcus. Marcus trains on the track with
me sometimes, he is a little bit faster than me but not much, he does have a
blazing sprint finish though. I had a plan for this race, follow Marcus for 2km
and then try and get away.
Bang and off we went, a fairly slow start and
Marcus took the lead! This was not part of the plan, I wasn't going to go into
2nd place and follow him, no way was Marcus expected to win. I tucked into the
back of the pack as the race progressed. 91.42 for 400m, the fast runners were
pulling away and Marcus was dropping away from the leaders. I was in 8th place
behind a runner in green with 2 others breathing down my neck. I tucked in
behind green into the wind and then overtook him just before 800m (3.03.69,
92.27 last lap). Marcus was about 30m ahead but he was slowly coming back. 1000m
reached in 3.50.52, Mr Green was right on my shoulder, 1200m (4.37.56, 93.87)
and I was chasing after Marcus. 1600m (6.11.49. 93.93), feeling tired but moving
well and I was almost up to Marcus! I caught him on the bend just before 1900m
and, as I originally planned overtook Marcus at 2000m (7.44.84, 93.95, last
1000m in 3.54.32). Immediately I picked up the pace to try and get away from
Marcus, this dropped Mr Green, at 2300m (700 to go) I heard the bell for the
leader. Could I make it to 2600m without getting lapped? 2400m (9.18.17, 93.33)
and I was giving it everything to avoid getting lapped and to hold off Marcus,
they rang the bell for me at 10.03.51 without getting lapped :-)As expected
Marcus zoomed off, another runner in red passed me the back straight.
Really tough in from then, I looked back a couple of times but no-one else was
coming.
Over the line in 11.36.83, last 400m in 93.32, last 200m in
45.95, last 1000m in 3.51.99. Official time was 10.37.4, I was 8th out of 10. A
pretty good race for me, not my fastest time of the summer over 3000m but in the
conditions it was not bad, in 3 other 3000m races this year I got lapped but not
today. Winning time was 10.09, I "won" by 6 seconds :-)
Into the indoor
track and off with the spikes for the summer, no more track running for a while,
time for marathon training. On with my rainsuit and my road shoes, off for a
cool-down mile in the pouring rain. I jogged out for 5 minutes, legs were rather
sore after all that. After 5 minutes I turned round and WALKED back. I have
finished running on the track for the summer but I have one more track race
planned. On Tuesday we are planning to go to an open meeting at Bury St Edmunds,
Shelley is planning to run a mile race. I am trying something new, a 1000m
RACEWALK. People who have seen me run know I am a bit of a shuffler, there
shouldn't be too much modification to change this to walking.
bye
tony....
Dr Tony Bell
Milton, Cambridge,
England.
Tony@shells.demon.co.uk
http://www.shells.demon.co.uk/tonyweb.html
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